Early Retinal Vacular Abnormalitie in African-American Cocaine Uer Original Reearch Article

Purpoe To invetigate whether cocaine ue i aociated with early retinal vacular abnormalitie. Deign Population-baed cro-ectional tudy. Method etting: Inner-city neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. tudy population: ixty-eight participant were recruited from an ongoing obervational tudy, invetigating cardiovacular complication of human immunodeficiency viru (HIV) infection and cocaine ue in African American aged between 25 and 54 year. Thoe with hypertenion and known cardiovacular/cerebrovacular dieae were excluded. obervation procedure: Ophthalmocopic examination and fundu photography of the retina of thee ubject were performed after pupillary dilation. The larget angle of arterial bifurcation (LAAB), central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE), and central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE) were meaured by ingle-maked fundu image examiner. main outcome meaure: LAAB, CRAE, and CRVE. Reult Among the 68 tudy ubject, 52 (76.5%) were chronic cocaine uer and 16 (23.5%) were non–cocaine uer. Univariate and multivariate analye indicated that the LAAB wa aociated with age and duration of cocaine ue of more than 10 year. The LAAB wa alo inverely aociated with very low-denity lipoprotein level. Multivariate analyi indicated a poitive aociation between CRVE and cocaine ue. CRAE wa alo aociated with intravenou injection. We confirmed that CRAE wa inverely aociated with age. HIV infection wa not found to be aociated with any retinal vacular parameter. Concluion Cocaine ue i aociated with increaed retinal arterial branching angle and venular caliber. The retinal vacular change provided the firt evidence that cocaine ue ha an effect on the retinal vacular ytem.